Lufthansa Put All-female Flight Crews in Control on International Women's Day

In honor of International Women’s Day on March 8, six all-female crews from Lufthansa Groups operated flights to Berlin.

Six two-woman teams representing Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian Airlines, and Brussels Airlines flew from Frankfurt, Munich, Düsseldorf, Vienna, Zurich, and Brussels to meet up at the Lufthansa hub in Berlin.

"We specifically look out for potential female employees on our application channels and we provide an employee-friendly working environment that means that family and work can be reconciled,” Lufthansa’s chief officer of corporate human resources and legal affairs, Dr. Bettina Volkens, said in a statement. “This allows us to attract more young women to supposedly typically male professions such as the pilot's job.”

About six percent of pilots in Lufthansa’s workforce are women. According to the International Society of Women Airline Pilots, the international average is about three percent (however Lufthansa’s number seems to fit into European averages. The UK Civil Aviation Authority reported that just under six percent of their pilots nationwide are women). They estimate that there are only about 4,000 female pilots around the world.

Elsewhere in the plane, Lufthansa’s cabin crews are about 80 percent female and about one-quarter of grounds operations employees are women. The airline says that it is actively trying to hire more women in managerial positions, as well.